Listening to music in Windows Media Center

Most people think of watching and recording TV when they think of Windows Media Center, but did you know that Media Center is also a great way to listen to music?

You can use Windows Media Center to play your favorite songs, create playlists for parties, and even watch a slide show of your pictures while the music plays.

Access your music in Windows Media Center

Media Center is best experienced using a compatible Media Center remote control. If you don't have a Media Center remote control, you can scroll left or right through your digital media collection by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen or by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.

On the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Music, and then click Music library.

Click Songs, right-click a song that you want to rate, and then click the Rating button (five stars in a row) multiple times until it displays the desired rating.

Click the green Start button to return to the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Music, and then click Play favorites.

By default, Media Center uses ratings to determine which songs are your favorites. To change the Favorite Music settings, from the Media Center start screen, scroll to Tasks, click Settings, click Music, click Favorite Music, make any adjustments you like, and then click Save.

You can save the songs that are queued in your song list as a permanent playlist to play again. Playlists are a great way to customize your listening experience. By creating a playlist, you can group any combination of songs into a list that you can then quickly play or burn to a CD. To learn how to burn music, see Burn a CD or DVD in Windows Media Center.

After adding music to your song list, on the Windows Media Center start screen, scroll to Now Playing, and then click the icon.

Click View List, and then click Save As Playlist.

Type a name for the playlist, and then click Save.

When you save the song list (queue) as a playlist, it's added to your permanent set of playlists. You can access your playlists in the Music library under Playlists.

You probably already know that Windows Media Center is a great way to watch and record TV, but did you know that it’s also a fun way to listen to music as well?

Whether on your couch or at your desk, you can use Windows Media Center to find your favorite songs, or you can create playlists for parties. You can even watch a slide show of your favorite pictures moving across your screen while the music plays.

You can scroll through your music library automatically by using the left and right arrow buttons.

On the start screen, scroll to Music, and then click music library.

(Optional) To use the Search function, on the start screen, scroll to Music, scroll to the right and click search. Enter letters by using the numeric keypad or your keyboard. You can also use the remote control to enter your search criteria.

Note

If you want to control Windows Media Center with a remote control, an optional Windows Media Center remote control is required.

If you particularly like the songs in your queue, you can save them as a playlist to play again. Playlists are a great way to control how you play your music. By creating a playlist, you can group any combination of songs into a list that you can then quickly play, burn, or sync. To learn how to burn music, see Burn a CD or DVD. To learn how to sync songs (and TV shows) to a device, see Sync TV shows to a device.

On the start screen, click Now Playing + Queue, and then click View Queue. The queue displays.

Click Save As Playlist.

Use the numeric keypad to enter a name for the playlist, and then click Save. When you save the queue as a playlist, it is added to your permanent set of playlists. When created, you can access your permanent playlists in either Windows Media Center or Windows Media Player under Playlists.

The queue is discarded if you do any of the following:

Click Play instead of Add to Queue for another song or album in Music.

Play media in Radio, TV + Movies, or Pictures + Videos. (Only pictures are discarded from the library, not videos.)

If your computer has no TV tuner, an optional analog or digital TV tuner is required to play and record TV in Windows Media Center.

Close Windows Media Center (including logging off, turning off or restarting your computer, or putting the computer into Standby mode).

You can watch different visualizations—splashes of color and geometric shapes—whose patterns move in time to the music you are playing. Visualizations are grouped into collections that are based on specific themes, such as Alchemy, Bars and Waves, or Battery.

On the start screen, scroll to Tasks, click settings, and then click Music.

Click Visualizations, and then select a visualization category. Each category contains a number of visualizations.